Hi guys! So here it is Chapter 8, I hope you'll enjoy it!
And sorry for the lack of action in this chapter, but I promise that the next ones are going to be far more interesting!
Alex
Chapter 8-Before treason there's love
'Max and Phoebe Thunderman!', a familiar voice boomed around the stadium, and even fighting, the twins recognized their mother's angry voice.
Quickly they tried to stand up and after a couple of 'Get your-!', 'Just try to-!' and 'That way!', Max and Phoebe were ready to raise on their feat and heroically stand for their charges! And of course, by heroically I mean smiling widely and posing into innocent children.
'Hi mom, dad!', Phoebe said, still smiling, but a hue of guilt was already easy to distinguish in the bright red colour of her cheeks.
'Yeah, what are you two doin' here?', Max asked in a casual way, managing to seem cool and in control of the whole situation.
'We were just coming to meet our dear children…', Hank started to say, mimicking benevolence, but the twins were able to hear Barb's half shout whisper that continued Hank's nice speech: 'Children who got into trouble!'.
'GET IN THE THUNDERVAN NOW!', Hank yelled at the two teenagers, unleashing all the rage he kept inside of him, since the moment he and Barb had found out that Max, Phoebe, Nora and the Thundervan were all gone!
On the other hand, Max and Phoebe were really frightened- the idea of really getting into trouble never crossing their minds. As the twins approached their angry parents on the stairs that led to the exit of the Arena, something puzzled them: they're parents worried glares, as they were expecting someone else…
'Where's Nora?', Barb asked, sounding more calm now.
Phoebe stopped dead in her tracks; of course in the battle of Max she forgot to check on Nora.
'I think she went to the VIP balconies, over there!', Max exclaimed, pointing his index finger to a bunch of balconies. 'Let me check!', he said, and before Barb or Hank could have opposed, he disappeared in a blur and then, reappeared, holding in his hand a bright red bow, exactly like the one Nora was wearing today. 'G-guys! I think Nora has, you know-', he said looking very concerned, but his voice broke before he could've finished the sentence. Phoebe, Hank and Barb were speechless, as they have never seen the 15 year-old boy so haggard in their whole lives. And then, all of a sudden a realization struck them- Nora would never leave willingly one of her bows behind.
'Hello Thundermans!', a mysterious voice said and all the screens in the stadium started to show an ash-blonde haired man, probably in his early thirties, grinning widely.
'Tramster!', Hank muttered very low and if not for his superhearing, Max would have never heard him.
'My name is Luke Tramster, special agent of the International Department of Spreading Evil of the Dark Army.', he said still grinning and then added in a voice full of defiance: 'Maybe you remember me, Thunderman?'. After a short moment of saying nothing, he continued: 'Anyway, Nora is currently in our custody an waiting for my Master's order, His Lordship, Dark Mayhem.'
Upon hearing the so-feared name, Max flushed.
'So see ya, Thundermans! Oh and by the way, you'd better not try to locate little Nora, here, or-', Luke said, his grin turning into a cruel smirk as the camera shifted in order to reveal Nora, whose limbs tied tightly to a chair and whose hair was a total mess.
'No don't-', she started to cry out, but all of a sudden the connection had been terminated.
No one said something for a long time, all the superheroes being stunned in shock. And then, they all started to crowd towards the exits, a total turmoil enveloping the Arena.
'Let's go home, kids.', Hank said sadly, looking far older than usual, his back starting to hunch a little.
Back in the Thundermans home, in Hiddenville…
'We have to do something!', Max exclaimed, sitting between Phoebe and Barb, as Hank was sitting on an armchair near. 'Cause I personally can't tell Billy that he's not going to see his sister for a long time from now on, so-'
'What?', Billy's voice made heard and the four adults turned their heads in order to see a Billy that was on verge on crying. And before Max. Phoebe or anyone for the matter could have explained what happened, the 10 year-old supersped out of the room.
'No! You heard what that damned soldier said. We can't risk losing Nora forever!', Hank said, standing up and heading upstairs.
'And what's the big difference anyway?', Phoebe murmured, but unfortunately was heard by Hank. 'OUR DAUGHTER AND YOUR SISTER IS STILL ALIVE, AND THAT'S ENOUGH FOR ME!', he screamed, storming out of the room, closely followed by Barb.
Later at night…
Phoebe couldn't help but feel kinda sorry for Max- he was silently blamed for everything that happened, but she knew that it was all her fault.
'Hey, dearie!', the unmistakable voice of Dark Mayhem boomed inside her head, bringing a slight migraine with it.
'How? But…?', Phoebe started to say, and then, adopting her cool demeanour she asked: 'What do you want?'
'To make a deal.', Dark Mayhem replied.
'Why would I?, she replied in a feisty manner.
'JUST LISTEN!', Dark Mayhem cried out, obviously irritated. 'Come alone to the coordinates I'll send you, unarmed and I will free Nora.'
Phoebe said nothing, yet, still weighing her options.
'Can I trust you?'
Dark Mayhem chuckled darkly before responding. 'Do you have any other choice?'
'Alright, fine!', she blurted out.
'Good! And I suppose that you know what will happen to Nora if you don't come…', Dark Mayhem said, sounding more and more far away, together with his attenuating voice the headache started to vanish as well.
'You should stand on guard, you know.', the grave voice that he heard before during History, at school.
'Not you again!', Max mentally groaned, barely hiding his annoyance.
'You don't seem too glad about it. Anyway, you had a bad day today, hadn't you?', the voice answered.
'How do you know that?', Max asked, briskly interested.
'You would be surprised to know all the things I know about you, Maximus Thunderman. But all I can tell you for the time being is that it starts to happen!'
'What?'
'The prophecy, Max!', the grave voice exclaimed.
'Yeah, yeah, I know the whole "born away" story.', Max said, starting to get bored of the apparently pointless conversation.
'I was referring to the second stanza. "But a great challenge shall arrive,/when the Dark Ones will strike,/Love and pain will fight together/And treason will be seen again,/The sister has betrayed.". Don't you see? The Dark Ones have hit you already by kidnapping your sister, Nora, away from you, and now you're experiencing both love, for your family and pain, for losing Nora. And there's treason left…', the voice said, in a way that was both calm and neutral.
'No, she would never-'
'You feel it too Max, the presence of a great misfortune. You know you do!'
Max said nothing for a long while, knowing that the voice was right after all, he felt it deep inside of him.
'But it doesn't say which sister will betray me!', Max exclaimed trying to contradict the unknown possessor of the voice.
'No, it doesn't, but you know perfectly well who will do it!', the voice said, fading away.
Max sighed, messaging his temples slowly.
He knew the voice was actually right…
Next day…
'Morning!', Phoebe said, trying to sound cheerful, although she wasn't- she hated being grounded and she made a deal with Dark Mayhem, after all.
She slowly headed toward the door, opening it slightly, hoping that no one would have observed her absence; of course they did.
'Where do you think you're going?', Barb said, shutting the ajar door by using a blinding lightning.
Phoebe quickly turned on her heels, facing her angry mom, and despite her tendency to listen to her parents, Phoebe knew she had to do it, she had to save Nora!
'Come on, mom, it's not fair, OK I understand that what we did was something wrong, but I was just trying to spend more time with Max and Nora in a funny way, as for Nora's missing is not our fault, OK? We were training and we couldn't watch her, too!', she said quickly, trying to regain her breath.
'And let's not forget about driving without a license and deceiving the authorities responsible with the security of the Arena…', Hank said, continuing Phoebe's speech.
'But I really want to go to the park! Please!', Phoebe begged.
'Alright, fine, you can go!', Barb said, smiling a little. 'But first, hug your mother!'
'Thank you, thank you a lot!', Phoebe said, hugging her mother and running outside the house.
'Hey, may I go too?', Max asked coming from his lair.
'No.', Barb said, categorically.
'Why not?', he asked, hoping that the answer wasn't-
'Phoebe usually doesn't break the rules, but on the other hand, you do… so many times that we can't even remember!', Hank replied, helping himself with a can from the fridge.
'But-!', Max tried to say, but Barb interrupted him in a hard-bitten way.
'No, you can't go and that's it! You are grounded and you are not going to live this house! Do you hear me?!', Barb said, almost screaming when she reached the last sentences.
Max didn't bother to reply, after all he was determined to live the house and nothing was going to stop him!
Back in his lair, Max grabbed his backpack and nimbly climbed on the rocks leading to the small windows that usually served as a way of escaping when he was grounded.
He stretched his hand and then tried to open the black framed window.
'Ouch!', he yelped, quickly withdrawing his hand-of course his parents activated a sort of security program.
Max started to superspeed through his room, trying to find a way of getting out of his house- he didn't know why I he felt that Phoebe was in danger, but the feeling was so strong in himself, that he wasn't able to stay in place, without doing something.
He tried everything, but he couldn't deactivate the security program which apparently blocked all his computers as well.
"So now there is no chance to hack the program…", he thought, hardly controlling the urge to hit both Barb and Hank with a blast of Light.
"OK, just calm down, everything is gonna be fine…", he told himself, leaning on one of the rocks.
And all of a sudden, he lost his balance, as the rock wasn't even there and the next thing that he knew was that his face was buried in the fresh grass. He slowly raised his head, not believing that he has just walked through a huge rock and a wall!
Later…
Max was able to see Phoebe walking towards a big empty loan, looking as she was waiting for something.
'Phoebe stop!', he yelled, making his sister blench.
'Sorry, Max I have to-', she started to say, but before she could have finished her sentence, she vanished, surrounded by a greenish-coloured light.
Max felt like everything was going to collapse, right there and right now. He really couldn't understand how he lost another sister, and his twin! The Chosen One let himself sink into misery…
'Max?', a familiar voice asked.
The boy jumped on his feet and saw that on the very spot Phoebe was standing on, now was Nora.
'Nora!', he exclaimed, superspeeding towards his sister and embraced her tightly.
'I'm also very happy to see you, but I am dying here, you superstrength, guy!', she managed to say, and Max quickly let her go.
'Come on, let's go back home!', he exclaimed, taking her little hand in his.
'One little thing before that…', Nora said, showing the puppy-eyes.
Max groaned and asked: 'What?'
'Do you mind if we stroll around the town, it's like I haven't seen it in years!', Nora said, and Max fulfilled her wish.
They walked around the whole town, stopping buy to buy some ice cream or even to eat a pizza (not at Ms. Wonk, though).
'Come!', Max told Nora, leading her to their house. 'Just wait here.', he said, slowly opening the door.
'Going somewhere?', he heard his father say from the kitchen.
'Maximus Octavius Thunderman I swear that-', Barb started to say, but froze when he saw Nora.
'Nora!?', Hank and Barb exclaimed together, rushing over to hug their daughter.
'Nora?', Billy exclaimed, and ran towards Nora, hugging her even tighter than Max did!
'You found her?', Hank asked, briskly looking a lot more younger.
'Actually… she found me!', Max exclaimed, but everyone in the room observed the hesitant way he replied.
'What happened?'
'OK, fine, so Phoebe made a deal with Dark Mayhem, to join him in change for Nora and then I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen and then-', Max said, letting all the stress of that day come out, as he burst into crying.
Everyone was stunned; they have never seen Max cry…
Max let himself fall on his bed, trying to figure out a way to help Phoebe…
'I think I can help you with that!', the grave voice said, making heard the second time on that day.
'How?', Max said mentally.
'I can learn you see beyond the appearances…'
'Alright?', he replied, being highly doubtful.
'Now, clear your mind and open your heart…', the voice said patiently.
Max did as he was told and then, he couldn't stop himself from yelping, as the intensity of the feeling was too much for him.
'Max, why did you call me here?', Tara said, but noticing Max's look, the casual smile on her face vanished.
'What happened?', she asked.
'Where's Phoebe?', he replied in an icy voice.
'I-I don't know-I', Tara started to say, but Max didn't wait; he stretched his hand and instantly, Tara was pinned to the wall, her limbs held in an invisible tight grip.
'I really don't-',she started to say, but Max raised a threatening finger and she stopped.
'Now, my patience's running thin!', the boy said, making another gesture. And in that moment, hundreds of fireballs appeared right behind him, from nowhere. 'So?', he asked, knowing that Tara was now too terrified to lie.
'Dark Mayhem said that he was going to take her to Villain U, but I don't know why.'
'Where's Villain U, then?', Max asked, less and less patient.
'I don't- I don't know!', the teenage girl replied, bursting into tears.
'Fine!', Max exclaimed in a little more friendly way, dropping his telekinetic hold of her and also making the fireballs vanish, knowing that Tara wouldn't dare to lie to him again. 'One more thing-', he added before Tara could have reached the school exits, 'do you know someone who might know where Villain U is?'
The girl did not say something for some moments, weighing her options, before replying firmly:
'Patricia, the new History teacher!', she blurted out, running out of the school.
'So where's Villain U?', Max asked Patricia, kinetically mercilessly grasping her neck, forcing her to rise on her tiptoes.
'You may kill me already, 'cuz I'll never tell you!', she said dramatically, spitting the last words.
'But you will tell me, eventually…', Max said, huskily, approaching the blonde woman. 'Where's Villain U?'
Again, Patricia refused to tell him, which drove Max crazy.
Max said nothing, and without a warning, he put his hand on Patricia's chest, right where the heart was and sinking his hand inside of her, he gripped her heart.
'So?', he asked, knowing that he was going to get his answer, he was so near to killing her- she will surely tell him; and she did. 'You see, it wasn't that hard, was it?', he said more calmly now, but still holding her heart.
'May I leave now?', the blonde woman asked combatively.
'No.', he replied in her ear, enveloping the hopeless woman into bright rays of light; then, she was gone and no trace of her existence remained…
But Max was too worried for Phoebe, to think about what he has just done…
In the meanwhile, at Villain U…
'Just stop moving!', Dark Mayhem said, exasperated with Phoebe's attempts to free herself of the chains that were holding her pinned to the cold stone wall.
'Why would I willingly let you hurt me?', she exclaimed, still pulling and pushing the chains, trying desperately to break them.
'Don't worry, we'll finish to say- uhm- ouch?', Dark Mayhem said hesitantly, not finding a right ending for his phrase.
'Why would I say-', Phoebe started to reply, when Dark Mayhem blasted her with a greenish-coloured light.
Max was trying to get past the security fences that surrounded Villain U, a medieval castle, made of grey stone, when his phone rang.
'What is it, dad?', Max asked, in a tone that suggested his displeasure of being interrupted.
'Come back home!', Hank exclaimed, without bothering to temper the excitement in his voice. 'Phoebe's come back!